A Guide to the Bangladesh Real Estate Market

There are a number of Brits who are of Bangladeshi origin, and have an active interest in that country’s property market. If you’re planning to sell land in Bangladesh fast, you will find the information given here useful.

Dhaka is the capital of Bangladesh. It is reckoned to be one of the most unliveable cities in the world. Many foreign observers are shocked at how the city manages to survive despite the unplanned development, lacking civic amenities, and having over ten million people packed into very little space.

But surprisingly, despite the odds, Dhaka has a thriving real estate market. A land purchase in an affluent neighbourhood Dhanmondi in 2005 for 6.5 million taka (or $82,000) would now be worth close to $500,000! That is impressive.

Goldman Sachs considers Bangladesh to be a fast developing country, which is getting everything right as far as its economy is concerned. There’s been a concerted effort on the part of the government to improve the standard of living of its people.

Bangladesh may still be an overwhelmingly poor country, but there are flashes of riches to be seen everywhere. In the north of Dhaka, for example, there are some apartment complexes that wouldn’t look out of place in Singapore or Hong Kong.

There’s a new generation of rich people in Bangladesh. Consider for example an entrepreneur in the upmarket Baridarah who had got a private helipad built on his property, as an answer to the heavy traffic in Dhaka.

There are over 45,000 millionaires in Bangladesh. For example, the apartments in the upscale locality of Navana Karatoya in Dhaka are worth $1.5 million on an average. Gulshan, Banani and Baridhara are three of the best neighbourhoods in Dhaka. Here too, the apartments for sale are likely to fetch a premium price.

The population in Dhaka has grown by quite a lot over the years. Dhaka used to have a population of 1 million in the 1970s, around the time Bangladesh became an independent country.

Since then, it has grown tremendously and now has a population of 15 million. Over 500,000 people from the rest of Bangladesh make their way to Dhaka in hope of gaining a decent livelihood every year.

Very few Bangladeshis can afford to buy properties in Dhaka. It’s just far too expensive for them, and well above the average income in Bangladesh. This means the property market in Bangladesh is inherently risky and prone to rapid fluctuations.

Bangladesh is not yet a politically stable country. There are rising instances of terrorist attacks and minorities are targeted by religious extremists. This means the property market is often at the mercy of external factors.

This certainly goes against Bangladesh. But things are changing fast. There is, for example, a new mass transit rail system in Dhaka which is expected to reduce the road traffic besides slashing journey times.